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T. KING.

Candle Mold.

Patented Nov. 6; 1860.

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' T. KING.

Candle Mold.

Patented No v. 6, 1860.

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THOMAS KING, OF TROY, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO IRA A. PULSIPHER, OF TROY, NEW YORK.

MACHINE FOR MOLDING CANDLES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 30,605, dated November 6, 1860.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS KING, of the city of Troy, in the county of Rensselaer and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Molding Candles Upon Endless Wicks; and I do hereby declare that the following contains a full and exact description of my iiivention, reference being had to the annexed drawings, which make a part of this specification, and in which- Figure 1 is a plan, Fig. 2 an elevation of one end, some parts being broken away to show the interior of the molds, and Fig. 3 an elevation of the other end,--all of one of my improved candle-molding machines; Fig. 4 a vertical longitudinal section. of the same at or near the line 2 z, and Fig. 5 a longitudinal section at or near the line y, y; and Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section of the molds, showing their piston-like tips de' pressed, and Fig. 7 a like section with the tip-molds elevated and the candles thereby forced part way out of the molds.

The same letters refer to like parts in all the figures; and the arrows therein indicate the directions in which the parts are moved in working the machine.

A is a stand in which the tubular molds, B, for the candles are firmly secured in an upright position with all their months or largest open ends in the same plane at the bottom 1c of a trough, 0, into which the melted tallow or other material is poured in filling the molds; and the sliding or piston-like tip-molds, D, are mounted 011 a vertically movable or sliding frame, E; by raising which latter the candles are loosened within and forced part way out of the molds; as in some other candle-molding machines, made heretofore.

After the candles have been loosened or started in the molds, they can then be very easily withdrawn. But to start or loosen the candles requires the application of so much upward pressure to them, that it is very difficult and sometimes impracticable, especially when making candles of paraffin and similar substances, to start the candles by pressing the tip-frame, E, upward when the tip-molds are so attached to that frame that all the candles in the stand must be started simultaneously, if at all, by raising the said tip-mold frame.

Now, one part of my invention consists in so making a part or the whole of the tipmolds D vertically movable separately, and difierent distances, on their supporting frame E, and so applying upward-pressing springs, v, thereto, that upon raising the frame E when the candles, F, (shown in red lines,) are stuck in the molds B, as in Fig. 6, the tip-molds will then not all begin to rise in the molds at the same time, but will succeed each other in starting upward, so that the candles will be thereby successively started in the molds, and consequently loosened much easier, than if they were all started simultaneously: all the tip-molds still being at equal distances from the tops of the molds B, both when the candles have been withdrawn and the tip-molds depressed preparatory to filling the molds; and when the tip-molds are in their elevated position, shown in Fig. 7.

The upward pressure of a spring 4) is sufficient to support a tip-mold, D, with a candle resting on it, as indicated by Fig. 7, but is not enough to loosen a candle stuck in the mold. The lower part, w, of the tipmolds may be fitted to slide freely through the frame or bar E,-a nut or pin, t, being arranged to limit the upward movement caused by the spring o;or, any other suitable construction may be adopted in making the tip-molds unequally movable on their supporting frame. This part of my invention is illustrated by Figs. at and 6, in which the left-hand tip-molds, at s, have little or no vertical movement independent of or in the frame E;--the middle tip-molds, at s, have a downward movement equal to the distance between the lines 7 and g, and the right hand tip-molds, at 8 a motion equal to the distance between the lines 1 and 12. Consequently, in those cases, in raising the frame E, the springs, Q), will be compressed until the frame E bears against the shoulders 011 the tipanolds, before the candles will be started; so that the left hand tip-molds and candles will be started first, the middle ones next, and the right hand ones last. It it evident that in such cases far less pressure will be required to be applied to the frame E at any one time, in starting the candles thus successively, than if the candles were all started simultaneously. When the candles do not start too hard, several, but not all, of the tip-molds may have the same length of independent vertical movement on their supporting frame. Also, one end of the frame E may be started up first, as in Fig. 4.

In candle-molding machines which have the candles started within and partly expelled from the molds by means of pistonlike tip-molds, the partly expelled candles have been heretofore drawn out of the molds by means of nippers or wick-clasps applied to wicks projecting from the butt-ends of the candles. But in such cases it is impossible to shave off the wicks, and the superfluous material, even with the bottom of the pouring-trough, while the candles are yet fast in the molds, as it is very important to do in making candles of paraffin and analogous substances. And, .in other candlemolding machines heretofore made, the candles have been forced upward entirely out of, as well as started within, the fixed molds, by means of the piston-like tip-molds. But in such cases the necessary smooth inner surface of the soft-metal molds in common use, soon becomes so scratched or roughened by the rubbing of the tip-molds up and down.

through the whole length of the molds, as to soon render the tubular molds unfit for use. And that construction also renders the machine too top-heavy, and too high for the operator to fill it conveniently while standing on the same platform as the machine; and in such machines the candles are more or less liable, during the latter part of their upward movement, to lean or fall over sidewise and thus have their tips broken or injured. But I obviate those difficulties by means of another part of my invention, which consists in simultaneously drawing the partly expelled candles F, Fig. 7, upward out of the molds B of a stand, into positions over, and at equal or nearly equal distances from the molds in which the candles are respectively cast, as indicated at c, 0, in Figs. 2 and 4, by the use of a clamp or clamps, G, attached to that part, a, Fig. 7, of thecandles'which is projected upward out of the molds by the sliding tip-molds the said clamp or clamps, G, with the candles supported thereby being raised, (so as to thereby draw the candles entirely and evenly out of, and the wicks, it, into, the molds,) by means of the simultaneously and vertically sliding frames H, H, or their equivalents, combined with the stand of molds.

I am well aware that clamps have been applied to the candles themselves, after the candles have been forced entirely out of and above the molds, for the purpose of thereby holding the wicks in the molds while the molds are being filled again, instead of effecting that object by means of a wickholder or tip-bar inserted or applied between the tips of the drawn candles and the molds. That I do not claim; and such an application and use of the candle-clamps, does not give any upward movement to the candles, or draw them out of the molds, nor re-wick the molds, nor employ any apparatuscombined and arranged with the stand and clamps for hoisting the latter,all of which features are essential to that part of my invention last above specified.

In the annexed drawings the clamps, G, extend over the frames H, H, (Fig. 4,) which are slid up and down between guides, I, I, I F, on the ends of the stand, so as to raise the clamps G, by the use of a handcrank,.J, shaft J, spur wheels K, K, K and racks 0, 0, 0 0 A pawl L engaging with the wheel K, may holdup the frames H, H, when they are elevated.

M, M, M, M, are .arms pivoted at n, n, a, n, to the tip-mold frame E, and extended past the sliding frames H, H, and provided with springs, N, N, Fig. 5, which draw the arms M into the notches or seats, m, in the frames H, H, when the latter and the tip-molds are depressed as shown in Figs. 2, 4 and 5. And as the frames H, H, are raised from that position they carry the arms M and consequently the frame up with them until the arms meet the oblique stationary guides, Z, Figs. 2 and 3, which force the arms M out of the seats m on to the fixed seats, 76, where they are kept by the lower projecting parts of the slides H, H, as in Fig. 3, while the clamps G are being elevated with the candles, and until the slides are again lowered so that the seats m therein are again opposite to the arms M, whereupon the springs N draw the arms into those notches, m, and the tip-frame descends with the slides. The seats, j, for the clamps G being so arranged upon the slides that they do not meet the clamps when placed in the troughs, G, as in Figs. 2 and 4, until after the upward movement, of the tipmolds, has ceased. This manner of making the slides H, H, fulfil the two-fold office of raising, sustaining and lowering the tip molds and elevating the devices by which the partly expelled candles are drawn from the molds, constitutes another part of my invention, by which I am enabled to operate the sliding tip-molds and also elevate the separate candle drawing device, by turning only one lever, J, or crank-shaft, J, by hand.

When the candles have been drawn from the molds, as shown at 0, 0, in Figs'2 and 4, the wick-holders, P, hinged by one edge, Q along the sides of the pouring trough, C, are then turned from their positions shown at U in Figs. '1 and 2, so as to be over the molds as shown .at V; the inner knee-jointed part (Z, hinged by one edge at Q, being at that time retracted as shown there, so that the wicks, h, which then extend from the tips of the candles down through the molds,

will enter the recesses S in the shell 6, as shown at T. Then the wick-holders are slid endwise in the direction pointed by the arrow so as to carry their hooks, R, past, and the side Z) of the recesses S, against, the wicks. Then the jointed part (Z is expanded sidewise, past the recesses S'and into the hollow hooks R, so as to hold fast the wicks therein, as shown at X in Figs. 1 and 2.

Next the wick-holder is slid endwise in the direction pointed by the arrow Y, Fig. 1, until the wick holder meets a stop Z; which centers the wicks in the molds. Then the candles are severed from the wicks, just above the holders P, and removed from the stand. The apparatus for drawing the candles is next lowered with the tip-molds, which latter, in descending, draw the wicks straight in the molds, and thus leave the molds ready to be filled. And after the melted material has been poured and has become sufliciently solid within the molds, the wick-holders P are detached from the wicks and turned back from over the molds as shown at U, either before or after the wicks and other superfluous materials have been scraped or shaved off from the butt ends of the candles; the wickholders being arranged far enough above the bottom of the pouring trough,as shown at V in Fig. 2, to allow a scraper or a shaving knife to be passed along the bottom of the trough under the wickholders.

The wiclnholder, P, constructed and arranged on the stand of candle molds in the particular manner above described, is, as I believe, superior to any of the many different devices heretofore used for the same purpose.

I am aware that it is not new to make the piston-like tip-molds separately movable on the sliding tip-mold frame, so that the tipmolds may remain in contact with the candles while the frame is lowered and brought up with a sudden blow against the tipmolds. That I do not claim ;-and it does not cause the candles to be successively started in the molds. Neither do I claim the starting or loosening of the candles separately or successively in the molds, irrespective of the particular means which I employ to accomplish that object.

W hat I claim as new in the above described candle-molding apparatus and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- 1. The piston-like tip-molds, D, made movable unequal distances on the sliding frame E, and provided with the springs v or their equivalents, substantially as and for the purpose herein described.

2. The clamp or clamps G, or any equiva lent therefor, applied to the projecting portion of the partly expelled candles, and elevated by means bf a hoisting apparatus combined with the stand of molds, for the purpose of drawing the candles out of the molds, substantially as herein described.

3. The combination and arrangement of the movable arms M on the tip-mold frame E, with the seats is and guides Z on the stand of molds, and the seats m on the sliding frames H, H, as and for the purpose herein set forth.

4. The wick-holders P, constructed and arranged upon the stand of molds in the particular manner herein described.

THOMAS KING. lVitnesses THOS. J. CORNELIUS, AUSTIN F. PARK. 

